My Morning Mate

I had been wanting to try this, but had pegged Matevana as my mate of choice from Teavana. There was something about this tea that was interesting, but the description for Matevana won out and I went with that instead. But still this tea begged to be tried. Since Teavana only sells in 2 oz bags or more I figured I’d just never try it (Javavana got it’s turn already with mixed results). Enter: the swap!

It’s not a bad tea but I cannot really understand why this is considered to be “the coffee kicker” especially over javavana or matevana. It’s fine, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t stand out to me. To me it tastes a bit like a mix of many teas making it a bit nondescript. There’s some mate flavor in there, a bit of vanilla perhaps, and maybe a dash of cinnamon?

Bottom line for me: it’s fine. Nothing more, nothing less. Glad I got to try it without committing to a full bag.

This tea isn’t bad at all.. its kind of a roasted taste. Its super comforting… I don’t like a lot of mate’s .. esp. green mate because it usually tastes burnt to me.. but this one is nice and I don’t get that taste from it… i’ll definitely restock this one in small quantities.

I realized too late that this tea isn’t vegan. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to check that out before ordering it. I suppose it’s because I’ve never had this problem before. Oh well. I’ll probably put the rest of this in my swap pile.
They must be discontinuing this because it was $1.75 for 2oz, which as we all know is crazy-cheap for Teavana. I couldn’t resist ordering because of this. Anyhow, the dry leaf has a lot of the aromas I expected: coffee, caramel, nuts, cinnamon. But it also has a super-sweet fruitiness that I didn’t expect. Brewed, the fruitcake-like smell just about disappears and the caramel and hazelnut coffee aromas are in the forefront. This isn’t a bad tea, but it’s not my style. I tried to taste the coriander, but couldn’t decipher its influence. Maybe it was the odd, almost salty flavor? I don’t drink maté much, so it could be that too. These dark, rich, layers of flavor are layered on top of a really thin tea base. I would really prefer this with a strong black base, I believe. It was fun to try for $1.75, though!

Yum what a smooth cup to wake up to. I do love to wake up by drinking a big mug of black tea too but this is sooo much smoother than many black teas.

This morning I decided to try My Morning Mate and on reading the label see; “…mate, black tea and red rooibos…” that’s when my brain short circuited. It’s too early for riddles! How do I steep this thing?!

Being a tea newb, I immediately searched Steepster to see what others had in their tasting notes (thank you). I THINK I brewed it properly because it tastes rather good. It has a slight chicory flavor and a sweet almost caramel smell. I’m not certain what the caffeine content is but I definitely felt the after effects!

Thanks to My Morning Mate, I’m very much awake and ready to tackle the uninteresting required reading that I need to do for an online course. Yay…

This is one of my top 10 favorite teas. I need to use my finest mesh strainer to steep it and still there are floaties in the bottom of my cup. Fair warning. But the flavor! There’s chocolate, nuttiness, spice, who knows what else—it makes a smooth, mellow taste all its own. I could drink this all morning. When I run out I will buy more. For me, that’s pretty rare.

Edited to add, I’m not a coffee drinker at all, so I can’t speak to whether this is really a coffee kicker. But it’s definitely a worthwhile tea on its own!

So delicious! Hazelnutty, rich yumminess. I drink this with a bit of vanilla bean infused sugar, and it’s like a rich Starbucks drink. It’s thick tasting and rich, robust and reminiscent of coffee without the bitterness. Love the nuttiness and slight hint of chocolate. It’s not chocolatey, but there is something a little bit like chocolate there. One of my absolute favorite teas.

A dizzying blend of nuts, chocolate, and a potpourri of other flavors that combine to make a nice alternative to coffee.

Although not the best chocolate tea I’ve had, that title would go to another tea I received as a gift from a friend, it is quite a delicious chocolate tea nonetheless.

Even without rock sugar, it has a light milky creaminess, and a sweet decadence similar to caramel or hazelnut, which are both also in this blend.

If you like your coffee light on taste but full of nutty creamy flavor, this is a very great alternative.

I’m new to Steepster, so this will be my first note…hopefully, I’m doing this right. I find this mate to be very nice – although I wouldn’t consider it a replacement for coffee, it certainly has a place in my morning routine. I still like my coffee though, but I’ve found that since discovering loose leaf tea earlier this year when I stumbled into a Teavana store, that I’ve been drinking more tea & less coffee. Anyway, back to the review. The taste to me is a bit of a smooth caramel flavor. No bitterness at all. There are some chocolate notes too, but the caramel stands out more to me. I sweeten mine with either the German rock sugar (when I have some) or Sugar in the Raw, plus a tiny splash of heavy cream. It is a sweeter tea, which suits me fine. I steep it for between 5-6 minutes, with near boiling water.

I find that this resteeps just fine for me – I increase the steep time to 8 minutes. I’ve left it for as long as 10 minutes before without any bitter taste. If I recall correctly, mates can be steeped for long periods. Because it’s a “thistle” type tea, a little goes a long way for me, especially when I resteep, making this quite economical. All in all, it’s one of my “go to” teas.

Not bad… I like this better than the Rooibos Chai fom Teavana that I had just before this. I added a bit of rock sugar and milk to it. Tastes like a VERY weak Hazelnut flavoured coffee.